


here, we rule the world

by rememberhow



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Adora Remains with the Horde (She-Ra), Horde Adora (She-Ra), Horde Lord Adora (She-Ra), Horde Lord Catra (She-Ra), Married Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Mild Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Queen Glimmer (She-Ra)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 11:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25470010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rememberhow/pseuds/rememberhow
Summary: adora never discovered she was she-ra. while etheria burns, she and catra rule the horde like they always said they would.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 156





	here, we rule the world

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by [this INCREDIBLE art](https://twitter.com/mondaykilly/status/1277346273968836608) by [@mondaykilly](https://twitter.com/mondaykilly) on twitter!

“Force Captains!” Adora holds the silver spoon between her thumb and forefinger and hits it against the rim of her wine glass, a sharp clink sounding throughout the hall. Everyone seated around the table, save for Catra, snaps to attention. “The past few months have not been without challenge. The Rebellion is growing in numbers and Queen Glimmer is sending more troops out to the Woods, where they have made what looks to be permanent bases.” Adora plants both palms against the table, fingers scraping against the metal. The usual cold blue of her eyes burns under the warm flickering glow of the room. “But we will meet resistance with resistance. We will rain _fire_ on those who think they can come any closer to the Fright Zone.” 

Her gaze goes around the table, meeting everyone else’s before it finally lands on Catra, at the other end of the table. 

Catra smirks. Adora lets herself return the gesture before sobering again. 

“The Kingdom of Snows has fallen, thanks to Force Captain Lonnie’s brilliant ambush tactics.” Adora nods to her left, where Lonnie sits, and the Force Captain nods back. “We seize Salineas next. I trust you will all come prepared for tomorrow’s council meeting, and I thank you for your continued efforts. Know that I say this with every confidence I have: In the end, the Horde shall prevail. Etheria and worlds beyond will be freed from Rebel clutches.” 

She straightens. “And with that I would like to make a toast.” Lord Adora lifts her glass, dark liquid swirling inside. “To the Horde.” 

The Force Captains stand. Lord Catra mimics them, albeit a bit belatedly, and less gracefully. They raise their glasses. 

“ _To the Horde!_ ” 

—

“That was splendid.” Adora isn’t really listening, too focused on reaching the zipper of her suit. Catra, without really thinking, sweeps her hair aside and undoes it for her, fingers skittering over scarred skin. “You were very ‘I command your attention’ tonight.” 

Adora shakes the last clips out of her hair and places them on the vanity. “Really? I tried my best.” She sighs through her nose, then narrows her eyes at Catra. “Wait. Are you being serious or sarcastic?” 

Catra flops onto the bed, stretching her long limbs with a half-hearted yawn. “As serious as you were, _Lord Adora_ ,” she replies, pitch lowering and nearing playful when she uses Adora’s title. She tips her head down in a mock bow. 

“Ugh.” Adora rolls her eyes. “It’s not like you”—she rushes forward, launching herself for Catra, who shrieks in surprise—“wanted to help me with giving a speech anyway!” 

Catra pushes her off, climbing over Adora as she lands on her back and placing her hands on either side of Adora’s head. “You know I can’t be bothered with the boring stuff.” 

“Yeah?” Adora mumbles. “Then you’d better just cut to the chase already.” 

Catra shakes her head with a grin and ducks down to kiss her. 

—

She isn’t trying to be secretive. You can’t really blame someone for not telling you when they sneak out of their room in the middle of the night, not when they don’t even know why they are out here in the first place. 

It used to be a clandestine thing. Catra and Adora had the whole place mapped out by the time they were sixteen. Of course, it was the former who had taught the latter. Catra spent a lot of her childhood running away from people. She knew all the good hiding spots, where you could go if you just wanted a few minutes to yourself. Where you could find the best views. She knew where you could tell your best friend you loved them for the first time, and kiss them without the fear of getting caught, or with just _enough_ fear that you think _Fuck it_ and do it anyway because, hell, you’ve been staring at this girl for eighteen years. 

Then it became a sort of therapy. They wound up somewhere up there when Shadow Weaver was sent to Beast Island (mostly it was Adora rambling about how terribly she raised them and Catra digging claws into her own arms and burning holes in the sky with her eyes). Then again after the fall of Hordak, where Catra and Adora contemplated what laid ahead, although it wasn’t too difficult to work out when they had been planning to take over since they could think. They fell into their thrones naturally. 

And here she is again. Adora can see the whole base, every limb of gangly metal framework of the Fright Zone. While perpetually ablaze during the day, the sky is pitch black at night; it would be impossible to see if it weren’t for the moons, twelve blood red satellites flaming in the endless dark. 

She stares at them and the sprawling junkyard maze they called home, and she wonders what is out there. No, she knows what’s out there—she’s been through the Whispering Woods countless times, has surveyed all six kingdoms and led sieges on almost every village. 

But there is something else. Maybe it’s physical, maybe it isn’t, and that was part of the problem. The not knowing killed her. Adora needs to be in control at all times, and this is the one thing that always feels just out of reach, inexplicably calling on her, pulling her out here. It’s why she woke up from the same dream for the tenth night in a row, why she slung her jacket over her shoulders and glanced at a sleeping Catra before heading out. 

Maybe she’s just brain damaged, she thinks with a huffing laugh. It’s what Catra would tell her. They trained their asses off to get where they were now, and they were finally the ones in charge. _Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted?_ Catra always said, tossing Adora her lazy smile. 

_Yes_. Well, it’s what everyone told her she wanted. Catra, Shadow Weaver, Adora’s whole team, and in the end, she supposed, it was all there was. She didn’t know to want anything else but that single point of success at the end. 

It’s in her palm now. And yet. 

_Balance must be restored._ The voice isn’t quite as cold and mechanical as it was whenever she jolted awake, but the words it always uttered are just as clear. _Etheria must seek a hero._

_I’m trying_ , Adora wants to respond, _the Horde is trying. Just give us more time._

Somewhere, though, some distant place in her knows that she’s wrong. There has to be something missing, because the voice won’t stop, and neither will the force calling her to the edge of the Fright Zone, and neither will that hollow growing in her chest. _There has to be something._

Adora looks down at her hands, clenched in her lap. It’s insane. It’s insane, right? Why would she give into this—this thing, whatever it was—when she had _everything_

_What more could I possibly want?_

She blinks, shakes her head, shivers in spite of the warm night wind. 

Adora climbs down and goes back home. 

—

The Queen is angry. 

Hasn’t she every right to be? They killed her father, then her mother, and with them the last of her spirit. They shoved her into this title when she was hardly a teenager. So she grew—much like her kingdom—hard, brittle, unmoving. 

Today she yelled at Castaspella, shoved her to the ground with a burst of magic, and found herself alone again in one of the long, empty hallways of the castle. 

She is standing in front of the same mural. Etheria’s saviour, larger than life, poised with her sword in hand. 

Glimmer glares at the faceless warrior, wondering if her beacon of hope has become just another empty promise. 

“Hey.” A familiar voice. Tired and rough, but still soft enough to remind her she is not alone. Still, Glimmer does not turn. “I was looking for you.” 

“We’ve fought more battles than she ever has,” Glimmer grits out. Her eyes burn with the threat of tears. She can’t help it. She hates her as much as she needs her. “We’ve seen so much more loss and suffering than she _ever_ will.” 

Bow sighs, stopping beside his wife and blinking up at She-Ra. 

“Have we been blind this entire time? Hoping and praying that one day She-Ra would rise.” She faces him, arms crossed tightly over her chest. “It’s all fable. Something to put the children to bed with, not for actual war councils to believe.” Bow watches Glimmer throw her head back when she laughs, a flowering sound thorned all over. 

It’s strange, how their roles began to reverse when they crowned Glimmer Queen. She became the pragmatic one, and Bow—he still seems caught up in a hopeful dream. 

“I hope not,” he says, finally. He puts an arm around her shoulders and pulls her in close. “Come on. Let’s go to bed.” 

She lets him lead her away. 

—

Adora has this thing she likes to say out on the battlefield: _Onward and onward_. It is how she lives her life. It is how she would like her soldiers to lead theirs. 

Which is why this feels like a mistake and a violation. Under her direction the three tanks rumble ahead of her, heading to the next village. The last one, flanked by operatives, burns behind her. 

She takes a breath in and turns the skiff around, entering the depths of the Whispering Woods. 

**Author's Note:**

> in the show adora doesn't get visions/hear light hope's voice until she touches the sword but i kind of had to change that here :))
> 
>   
>  [twitter](https://twitter.com/sixtylightyears)


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